Tong Family

SonyStyle.com | TX Series. Shawn was asking me, what notebook to get, I’ve been in favor of the ultralight Sonys because I generally don’t need the speed of the Intel Core Duo and most importantly the weight. These models use a very low power Pentium M, but the result is that they get unbelievable battery life and are the only sub three pound notebooks with a DVD player that really lasts six hours.

The models keep changing though, so here’s an analysis of what to get from the “Sony”:http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_BrowseCatalog-Start?CategoryName=cpu_VAIONotebookComputers_TXSeries&Dept=computers

* VAIO VGN-TX750P/B. This is the current low cost model. They have definitely been eliminating the lower sub $2000 models, but getting rid of the CD-ROM only models, that’s too bad, since who needs a DVD writer on such a slow computer. In any case, this is the low end with a 1.2GHz 753, EDGE and 802.11b/g and then a DVD+RW DL optical drive plus 512MB of memory and 80GB hard drive. List is $2300 with a street of $2150 on “Pricegrabber”:http://www.pricegrabber.com/p__Sony_VAIO_VGNTX750PB_Notebook,__17979768/sort_type=bottomline
* VAIO VGN-TX770P/B. The same as above, but it has 1GB for $2600. This is pretty expensive for just 512MB more of memory. Tempting just to buy third party memory and install it yourself. Street price is more like $2400 on “Pricegrabber”:http://www.pricegrabber.com/p__Sony_VAIO_TX770P_B_Notebook,__18072866/sort_type=bottomline

If you go slightly bigger to the SZ series, you get a much faster processor in the Core Duo, but weight climbes to 3.7-4.07 pounds, but you do get a 13.3″ screen. For me, the small 11″ screen makes more sense since I take many economy class flights and you can’t open up such a big screen back there.

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